Starting New Militia

[7SFCW4]

Very true, well said.

 

[Chall49983]

I really like what you are doing, this is very needed. Great work keeping things above board.

 

[Chall49983]

It seems to me that getting our nuclear family on board first, then siblings + parents, friends as close as blood-brothers, and cousins forms a good core. From there, their families as well form yet another layer of who you can trust.
Where I am from, that is a pretty sizeable force of men in the family that could muster at a moments notice and would die for each other 100% and would be there to take care of your kids if you didn't make it 100%. A lot of the farmers and their families around here would be excellent, indispensable allies, because by and large they are moral people, free thinkers, intelligent, with skills, and supplies. It doesn't get much more local than a farmer.

Branching out to other families is good, but think of it like each family network is like a platoon and the "elders" in other families need to step up and lead and ensure communication between platoons. Granted, militias aren't all about guns...and that's why family networks are again a great way to start.

Forming a militia and keeping it orderly is a great goal and worthy of recognition. From my experience, it is a lot easier to approach people you know and trust first to get them squared away and get your group up to speed before you open it to the public.

 

[Brutus57]

I kinda like the sound of BCR. Benton County Regulators.... but then I am a long, long way from there.

Brutus Out

 

[coop44]

what you should do is "friendly it up", something like the Maroon Marching Volunteers, Sons of Nice Moms, Placid Peaceful Paranoids, or Vishnu's Valiant Few. Stand around a few public functions in sarongs giving out flowers and peaceful vibes. Should be enough to show the PTB you are harmless, heck you might even get religious status with the IRS.

Then start making plans

 

[AMProducts]

what you should do is "friendly it up", something like the Maroon Marching Volunteers, Sons of Nice Moms, Placid Peaceful Paranoids, or Vishnu's Valiant Few. Stand around a few public functions in sarongs giving out flowers and peaceful vibes. Should be enough to show the PTB you are harmless, heck you might even get religious status with the IRS.

Then start making plans

There are a few ways to go with this... you can "take over" another organization, a friend of mine some time ago was suggesting we find a local elks lodge, moose lodge, or other fraternal organization that has had it's membership depleted by age, and join up and take over a local. One thing we did (as part of the local libertarian party) was take over a sierra club chapter for about 2 years, it was HI-LARIOUS, unfortunately, too many people lost interest.

The other option is starting your own group... I came across something the other day (I still have it saved as a PDF) and pretty much, it's a how-to start your own local green party, well the advice is pretty general, and could easily be re-written to start your own local ____ party. It seems that one fact that gets lost on many "right wing" organizations is that the progressive left has already written most of the books on how to do grassroots community organizing, this is why these small groups tend to hit well above their weight and why a rich white guy is still occupying the white house.

It seems to me, that adopting successful strategies and tactics is more important than where they came from.

It seems to me that getting our nuclear family on board first, then siblings + parents, friends as close as blood-brothers, and cousins forms a good core. From there, their families as well form yet another layer of who you can trust.
Where I am from, that is a pretty sizeable force of men in the family that could muster at a moments notice and would die for each other 100% and would be there to take care of your kids if you didn't make it 100%. A lot of the farmers and their families around here would be excellent, indispensable allies, because by and large they are moral people, free thinkers, intelligent, with skills, and supplies. It doesn't get much more local than a farmer.

Branching out to other families is good, but think of it like each family network is like a platoon and the "elders" in other families need to step up and lead and ensure communication between platoons. Granted, militias aren't all about guns...and that's why family networks are again a great way to start.

Forming a militia and keeping it orderly is a great goal and worthy of recognition. From my experience, it is a lot easier to approach people you know and trust first to get them squared away and get your group up to speed before you open it to the public.

This is called "forming a nucleus" and yes, it's a good place to start, however it has a few real disincentives as the group grows... maintaining family in the positions of power will eventually start to look like nepotism, it also means the group cannot maintain itself without the family. While I like both my friends and my family, building "coalitions of the willing" is really more important, this gives the group life beyond yourself, and is really the end goal.

 

[AMProducts]

Here's that link I was talking about earlier...

<broken link removed>

 

[Thebastidge]

Washington State Guard commander Col Terry Larue will be at my shop, Southwest Washington Surplus (location and contact info in signature), in Vancouver on August 23rd to discuss and recruit for a WSG unit to be stood up in Clark County.

<broken link removed>

I also host the Clark County Chapter of Oath Keepers in my classroom for monthly training meetings. It is considerably more than a bunch of guys sitting around pretending. The last meeting was training on Ham radio operations and planning resources to get folks licensed.

I am an NRA instructor as well as certified in some other disciplines, and will be an NRA Training counselor after October. I welcome questions and invite folks to come check out these groups.

Some of the members on here can vouch for me and my business, and what we're trying to accomplish by hosting these events and groups.

 

[erudne]

VN re-enactors group?

 

[AMProducts]

VN re-enactors group?

WWZ Pre-enactment group?

So I was re-reading some of the posts... and apparently there were at least a few that I had missed and failed to either add or comment on.

To echo some of what was already said. EMT-B is really not an endorsement of skill, I got my EMT-B a number of years ago, since I had no interest in actually being employed as an EMT I never got the cert. That said, it did improve some of my "trouble shooting" skills when it comes to dealing with emergency medicine, I have actually encountered a few situations where I may have saved someone's life (diabetic issues seem to be a recurring theme). That said, traumatic injury is much easier in a number of ways than figuring out a child is having a fiboral siezure. That said, the scope of practice is much different, and generally despite all that fancy stuff I learned in school, the job of the EMT is to take people who are sick or injured, stuff them in an ambulance, fill them up with O2 and take them to a doctor. Most of the time there will be very little impact on the outcome of any interventions you may make, the paramedics (who will usually be there first, or minutes afterwards) will get to do all the fun stuff, and you get to do all the heavy lifting (literally, ever moved a 500lb person complaining of chest pains? if you're a paramedic, probably not recently)

To contrast the CLS (combat life saver) with the EMT, they definitely have the edge in terms of dealing with trauma. However, I doubt they deal much with diabetics of schizophrenic homeless people. It would be really nice to see some combination of those two skillsets as both have tremendous value. One thing I'm not sure about at all, is whether there's any possibility of actually taking a CLS class for the non-military. I've done the self study courses, but never any hands-on stuff.

 

[erudne]

problem is CLS have a huge supply chain of meds and tools backing up their training not available to the common man, also the repercussions of making an oopsie under combat conditions are far different than in civi-land, though if one was in a situation where heroic methods were needed the ROL is probably not present but I digress. Without a well stocked pharmacy to supply the needed meds field surgery descends to a Civil War level

 

[Thebastidge]

Thus the books "Where there is no doctor" and "Where there is no dentist." I have a couple books on primitive surgical techniques, described from an historical interest perspective. Not enough detail to put into practice, even in an emergency. It would be interesting to get some of those Civil War era medical texts and techniques. Combined with modern germ theory and hygiene, they would probably be relatively effective. People weren't any stupider in those days, they simply didn't have as much research and tools to support them.

 

[MikeSettles]

Regarding CLS: Basically intended to be a squad member who carries extra life-saving supplies in a bag, and after the shooting stops, stabilizes any squad casualties until the Medic arrives: It's basic first-aid on steroids, and great field-trauma training, but lacking in disease prevention/cure. Get that knowledge elsewhere.

CLS supplies, just as anything else, would be part of your preps: CAT tourniquets, compression bandages, SAM splints, nasal-pharyngeal tubes, 14-gage needles and Asherman Chest Seals for tension-pneumothorax, tape, gloves, some pain-killers, some doxicycline, IV kits, suture kit, etc. More is better. I have a foot-locker which I try to keep adding stuff to, as well as an aid-bag, plus an IFAK for each person in the household.

A good Army-type slide show about Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3):
http://www.slideshare.net/DocMariano/perform-tactical-combat-casualty-care?related=2

I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV. ;-)

 

[AMProducts]

problem is CLS have a huge supply chain of meds and tools backing up their training not available to the common man, also the repercussions of making an oopsie under combat conditions are far different than in civi-land, though if one was in a situation where heroic methods were needed the ROL is probably not present but I digress. Without a well stocked pharmacy to supply the needed meds field surgery descends to a Civil War level

During the civil war, barber surgeons didn't even wash their hands, there was no understanding of bloodtypes, transfusions, perfusion, shock, or many of the things that are so common today. Having either a well stocked pharmacy, or more importantly some expertise in chemistry to make more is an absolute must. Your criticisms of CLS are echoed in the EMT, however the physiological component you get in the EMT course is a big plus over the CLS course.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to expend supplies on people I don't know, this is 100% for people I know and like.

Thus the books "Where there is no doctor" and "Where there is no dentist." I have a couple books on primitive surgical techniques, described from an historical interest perspective. Not enough detail to put into practice, even in an emergency. It would be interesting to get some of those Civil War era medical texts and techniques. Combined with modern germ theory and hygiene, they would probably be relatively effective. People weren't any stupider in those days, they simply didn't have as much research and tools to support them.

+1 on the hesperian books. I've used the "where there is no doctor" book on more than a few occasions on my self for nuisance health problems (sinus infection).

 

[MikeSettles]

I've been through the 40-hour CLS course five times, but not EMT, so I can't personally compare the two.
What you do with CLS training & supplies, OR with EMT training & supplies, is up to you.
I expect that neither addresses post-Event diseases (though we got some briefings on the nasties we might encounter in Afghanistan), so you'll probably have to acquire that knowledge elsewhere. The "where there is no doctor" books are probably a good start. CDC keeps that stuff too (looked it up for a briefing I gave early this year).

 

[AMProducts]

When I took EMT-B it was 6 weeks, between class, lab and studies it was about 18 hours a day 6 days a week, sometimes 7. (usually you had day 7 off so you could do clinicals and ride-alongs)

The big thing, in all cases... is to get the training, and continue getting more training.

 

[aslinged]

People weren't any stupider in those days, they simply didn't have as much research and tools to support them.

People were substantially smarter back then. Also hardier, mentally tougher and less full of toxins.

 

[AMProducts]

People were substantially smarter back then. Also hardier, mentally tougher and less full of toxins.

I'm rather dubious of that assertion... Back in "those days" people drank water infused with radium, exposed themselves to harmful quantities of radiation so they could fit shoes, and considered lead oxide a great material to paint on everything. I'm not going to say we're all that much smarter now, just turn on Dr. Oz if you want to see the pinnacle of stupid people telling stupid people what to do.

Hardier? Tougher? Maybe, back then stoicism wasn't just an abstract word, it was a way of life. At the same time, there are plenty of hardy and tough things many of us do now. If you want to come work a 20 hour day shoveling metal into machines, let me know I'll make the arrangements.

 

[fireninja13]

Word to the wise -- much in the Law is rather ambiguous, and cannot be read literally. Judges interpret the law, and have been known *gasp* to interpret it in whatever manner achieves the outcome that is politically expedient.

The safe course is the positive community organizer role. Avoid terms like "Militia" "army" and any notions of military rank and hierarchy. These words are stigmatized and will get you the kind of scrutiny no one in their right mind would want.

However, if you're set on using the word "Militia" because of the very connotations that word has in this day and age, I recommend that you you start doing fundraisers and putting money into an account called "Legal Defense Fund" because you might well need it.

 

[U201491]

The Government is not on the side of the citizens.
It is on the side of Big Government .........................................

http://thefiringline.com/library/milpara.html